While I was out backpacking with some friends in Snake Gulch a couple years back, one of the guys on the trip dropped a line about a big ruin he knew about. "It's up so-and-so canyon, not far past such-and-such landmark. Its really big, right on the wall, you can't miss it."
Well needless to say I was hooked. I knew where so-and-so canyon was, and how to get into it, and I'd been to such-and-such landmark. So, starting in February of 2005, I'd been looking for it (see 2/04/05 for more details on that trip), but had been turned back by snow.
Well, it just so happened that Ely's brother Ben was coming up to visit, and had wrangled his girlfriend (at that point), Angela, into coming along. Being the adventurous type that he is, he'd wanted to go see some ruins. So I then set the same hook on him - big ruin, up so-and-so canyon, etc. They were in. So with all of us piled into the Jetta, we headed northeast towards Cedar Mesa.

Our group - I'm the one on the far right. Please ignore the beer-belly. The camera adds 15 pounds.
Our first stop was the Goosenecks of the San Juan, which no one, save myself, had visited before. When the Monument Upwarp was being, well, upwarped, the San Juan River was flowing through the area on a meandering course. As the land rose, the river, laden with sediment, cut through the layers of rock like a saw, leaving what's now visible - entrenched meanders.
We then ascended the infamous Moki Dugway, and set out across Cedar Mesa. We came easily enough to the canyon, and made our descent. Ely and Angela thought that I'd over-rated the easiness of gaining the canyon bottom, but I thought it was as easy as I'd claimed. It might be because I'd gone that route a number of times before, who can say. At last we reached the streambed, which in fact had some running water in it.

The stream reflects the sunlight onto the underside of piece of Cedar Mesa Sandstone.
This did make the journey more complicated that originally thought. And it was also complicated by the fact that the trail was nonexistent, and the wet early spring following the wet winter had left the canyon bottom a veritable jungle of growth. It was hard to pick our way upcanyon towards our supposed destination.
In fact, this very lack of progress (stymied by boulders, streams, and growth) led Ely to suggest turning back before we reached any ruins. She was concerned that perhaps my friend had lied, that we were in the wrong canyon. I reitterated that I'd never been to this site before. He and I walked about the same speed, and he said it wasn't far from such-and-such landmark. We weren't that far from the landmark, so it should be up ahead soon. By my reasoning.
She, however, was worried about water and food, as she'd brought little of each, and the climb into the canyon was more strenuous than she'd expected. Of course I'd brought extra water (several liters, in fact), but she said, "If we don't see something at the next bend, we're turning around."
And so it was that we approached the next bend, hoping that there'd be something there.

Our first view of Lightning House from the canyon bottom.
At first all we saw were two small structures, perched on a ledge maybe fifty feet off the canyon floor. I knew right away that this wasn't the fabled "big ruin" that my friend had told me about. But it was something! We weren't turning around now. Gradually, as we got closer to the cliff face, the ruin began to take shape.

Lower Lightning House totally blends into the cliff wall in the afternoon sun.
The ruin consisted of two levels - a lower residential area with a kiva, and an upper area, mainly granaries with one possible roomblock. There were also some decayed buildings under an overhang between the lower and upper units, but I couldn't really tell what they were.

Ely and Angela scope out the lower unit.
The upper unit was fairly easy to access through a slickrock friction accent, and was easily the most photogenic.

A prickly pear cactus pokes up atop a structure in the upper ruin.
There was a good deal of rock art at Lightning House, especially behind some of the upper structures. Spirals are a repeated motif, but other designs are present too. There was also a faint charcoal signature etched in the cliff wall. It was too faint for me to be able to read.

These petroglyphs are just beyond the cactus structure in the previous photo.
It was really neat, poking around through the upper unit. The views back downcanyon were great, and except for us four, there wasn't any other living humans around. Ben and Angela stayed in the lower portion of the ruin - neither of them had ever been to a backcountry site before, and while it wasn't as complete as other sites Ely and I had been to, the profusion of artifacts still present set the hook deep into Ben. He's as addicted to the Anasazi now as I am.

A granary door in the upper unit.

Upper Lightning House

Upper Lightning House

Nearly intact granary, upper unit.
There was one final surprise waiting for us on our way out. As we began to gather everything together and leave the site, Ely suddenly blurted out, "Oh my god, there's a giant man over there!" It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about, but as I walked over to her, the image resolved. Painted on the cliff face was, in fact, a giant man, along with a zig-zag (from whence Lightning House derives its name), and enormous "full moon", and a T-shape (doorway? slab paho?). What an amazing way to cap off the trip. Now, it was on, back towards the cliff and the car.

Appendectomy Man, the lightning bolt, and the T-shape.

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